To Serve a Prince
by rurousha
Summary: Mahad contemplates the unknown past, the uncertain present, and what that will make him to his prince.


Ever since I started watching the Memory World RPG arc, I wondered how much of his past Mahad remembered. The pharaoh may have wiped his own memories, but Mahad's are never mentioned. I like to think that the Dark Magician Yami uses is still conscious of himself as a man named Mahad that swore to protect his prince. I don't remember if this is Japanese canon or not, but when that crazy Dark Magician mind slave (the dead girlfriend-obsessed one that tried to saw off Yami's legs) tried to direct attack Yami, Yugi's own Dark Magician actually shouted his name and jumped in front of the attack. Now that may be because of the bond Yugi and Yami have with the Dark Magician in general or with Mahad in particular. This story is about the latter option.

Takes place the night after Death Tournament and Yami's shadow game with Kaiba.

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Yugioh. I don't even own any Yugioh DVDs. It's very sad.

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**To Serve a Prince**

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_Prince… is that you?_ I could sense him. He was nearby.

_Where… am I?_

I was in a box? No, a room. I was in a room, though the walls surely could not be made of stone or earth. They were completely white, far whiter than any ink or sun bleaching could accomplish. The rug beneath me was odd too. I looked as if it had been woven to resemble grass.

It was dark, but I could still see. I spun around. There was moonlight coming from behind me through a hole in the ceiling, even though I could feel no breeze. What was it that allowed light to pass through but not air? I decided it did not really matter. I only needed to find the prince. If I was here, then he was nearby.

I looked to my left.

"Pharaoh!" I rushed to his side and knelt down next to him. He was asleep, rolled onto one shoulder so that he was facing me. I wanted to wake him, to speak to him again after so long, but I restrained myself. It would have been rude and selfish of me to ruin his sleep just because I had missed him.

He looked so… young. Too young, actually. My eyebrows drew together.

"No," I muttered to myself. "You are not the pharaoh." He looked so similar, yet this boy was definitely not the prince. He was too young, too small, and even while he slept, I could sense an innocence in him that would have been quite out of place with the one I sought. The prince had been a kind child, certainly, but this boy had simple honesty about him that the prince had never had, even in his earliest years.

_Then, if you are not the prince, then who are you? _

"Yugi." The name had been on my tongue before I had even thought it properly. I was sure I already knew this boy, even though I could not remember having ever met him.

I sat down next to this boy, this not-prince, this Yugi and studied him from an angle. His blankets were pulled completely up to his shoulders. The only parts of his body not covered were his head and one arm that was splayed out toward the edge of his bed. It almost looked like he was subconsciously reaching out to his bedside table for something…

The Millennium Puzzle. How had I not noticed that? It was just lying there, unprotected, though within easy reach.

I reached out to touch it but, for the second time that night, stopped myself in time. The Millennium Puzzle did not belong to me, and it would be presumptuous of me to touch it without permission or immediate need. I did, however, stand up to look at it more closely.

I leaned down. There was power emanating from the puzzle, though not just the power of the puzzle itself. There was something I know I had not sensed in it the last time I saw it closely, but it still seemed so familiar.

By the gods, it was the prince!

"Pharaoh!" I yet again had to stop myself from grabbing at the puzzle once I realized what it was. Yes, I remembered now. The conflict with the thief king had not been completely resolved. The prince had discarded his own memories and sealed himself here, within his own millennium item.

I smiled. I knew I had felt the prince nearby, and this was the source of that. With that mystery figured out, the other pieces began to fall into place. If the Millennium Puzzle had been reassembled and the spirit of the prince was active, then Yugi was likely the one who had solved it. A reincarnation, perhaps? That seemed probable.

I thought back to my question from earlier. Where was I? Given the sheer oddity of the room and that Yugi was possibly a reincarnation of the prince, it seemed a better question would be _when_ was I?

Once again, I supposed it really did not matter. The prince was back, and I would help him in any way I could.

Actually, I seem to remember the prince having already called on me to help. Fairly recently, I think, in comparison to the last time I was summoned. I had not really paid attention to who had summoned me since I had automatically assumed it was the prince. All I really knew was that that there was Seto's white dragon in front of me and that I was needed.

I started to regret not having been more thorough in my observations. Thinking back on it, I seemed to remember the boy controlling the dragon having looked a good deal like Seto. But that sadistic smirk seemed so wrong. The prince and his priest may have disagreed a fair bit, and their rivalry did get out of hand a few times, but Seto had never looked at his own pharaoh with such loathing as I had seen earlier. No, that boy was no more High Priest Seto that the child next to me was the Pharaoh of all Egypt.

I sighed. Then I continued my examination of the table in front of me. There was a stack of what looked to be strangely colored paper sitting next to the Millennium Puzzle. They were a dull red color that swirled into a black center. I touched the top of the pile and slid the first paper off, grasping it with my thumb and forefinger. I was surprised at how stiff and slick the paper was. It did not feel like paper at all.

I turned the paper around and gasped. The man in the image, his clothes – I looked down at my own outfit – were mine. Were it not for his strange coloring, I would have even gone so far as to say that he looked like me.

The lettering on the card was certainly foreign, but, as with Yugi's name before, I seemed to know what it said. Dark Magician.

This image did not resemble me. It _was_ me. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the means by which I had been summoned earlier and was probably what was allowing me to be here now.

I lifted a hand to touch my cheek, and wished for a means to look at myself. I had a feeling that I would not recognize my own face, that I would see what I was seeing in this image.

I replaced the paper to where I had found it and looked back to the puzzle. That had been enough. I understood.

The prince did not remember his Mahad, his friend. Rather, this spirit of the Millennium Puzzle knew only the Dark Magician.

"If that was what you need me to be, my pharaoh, then that is what I will be." I did not need to know anything else.

I turned my gaze to the bed once again. "Dear Yugi, I ask for your strength to guide me. I feel the pharaoh has much to do now, and he will need both our help."

I lowered my head toward the puzzle and the spirit within.

_I am the Dark Magician, and I will protect my prince._

My shadow magic at last dissolved, and I faded from this world and back to my prince's side.

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The end.

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I toyed with the idea of Yami coming out of his soul room and confronting Mahad – who he knows only as the Dark Magician. Or possibly even Shadi, who Mahad remembers as Shada. But I decided that this story was about Mahad and Mahad alone. That's also why I wrote in the first person, even though I loathe doing so. 

And no, my use of prince versus pharaoh is not an accident.


End file.
